editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Features and interviews lovingly produced by your local public radio station.NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Susan StambergWed, 08 Nov 2017 13:41:53 +0000Susan Stamberghttp://kwit.org
Susan StambergJohannes Vermeer's Young Woman Seated at a Virginal doesn't quite look like a Vermeer painting. The titular young woman is klutzy at her keyboard, and graceless. She's also sitting in a dark room — none of that ethereal, luminous light Vermeer normally shines on his subjects. Vermeer created the painting in 1675, when he was in his early 40s and broke. It was the last year of his short life. National Gallery curator Arthur Wheelock says, "We know that he dies suddenly and may be ill, so I don't know what effect that might have on this [painting]." So little is known about Vermeer. There are only 35 or 36 paintings of his left in the world, and right now the National Gallery is showing 10 of them — domestic scenes, many with glorious, gentle light. In Lady Writing (1665), lemony sunshine pours onto a woman's ermine-trimmed yellow jacket as light strokes her quill pen. That's the Vermeer most people know. The National Gallery exhibition, " Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting ," hasDutch Artists Painted Their Patriotism With Pearls And ... Parrots?http://kwit.org/post/dutch-artists-painted-their-patriotism-pearls-and-parrots
117865 as http://kwit.orgTue, 07 Nov 2017 23:17:00 +0000Dutch Artists Painted Their Patriotism With Pearls And ... Parrots?Susan StambergCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the greatest stars of Hollywood's golden years. A new biography describes their 50-year friendship and dedication to their craft. Each was an actor before he became a star, their biographer writes, and they both remained actors after they became legends. Here's NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg. SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: They met in 1932 in New York, two young theater actors sharing an apartment scratching out a living during the Depression, such different personalities. If Stewart was a curious puppy, biographer Scott Eyman writes, Fonda was a cat - contrary, somewhat disgruntled and perfectly content to walk by himself. An odd couple, and they both loved cats, Fonda most. SCOTT EYMAN: A stray showed up at the back door. He would feed it, which of course became three strays, which of course became 12 strays. Because there were so many cats, he couldn't possibly keep them all'Hank And Jim' Highlights The Long Friendship Of 2 Hollywood Legendshttp://kwit.org/post/hank-and-jim-highlights-long-friendship-2-hollywood-legends
117385 as http://kwit.orgTue, 31 Oct 2017 09:05:00 +0000'Hank And Jim' Highlights The Long Friendship Of 2 Hollywood LegendsSusan StambergIn 1880, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, age 41, wrote to a friend that he was in a riverside town near Paris painting oarsmen. He'd been "itching" to do it for a long time: "I'm not getting any younger," he wrote, "and didn't want to defer this little festivity." Now that painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party , is the star of a new exhibition at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. The painting shows 14 young people having a wonderful time on a sunny balcony overlooking the Seine. Lunch is over — there are half-full wine bottles, golden grapes and pears on the white tablecloth — and now they're relaxing, talking and flirting. "I really don't know any painting in Renoir's work that surpasses the boating party," says Phillips Collection curator Eliza Rathbone. "He's at the height of his powers. Renoir has really been painting in an impressionist style for more than a decade, and he's ready to surpass himself." The artist asked friends to pose for him — pretty models, actresses, aGuess Who Renoir Was In Love With In 'Luncheon Of The Boating Party'http://kwit.org/post/guess-who-renoir-was-love-luncheon-boating-party
117076 as http://kwit.orgThu, 26 Oct 2017 09:03:00 +0000Guess Who Renoir Was In Love With In 'Luncheon Of The Boating Party'Susan StambergFrom baseball caps to saris to the little black dress, there's a social history woven into the clothing we wear. A new exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) explores that history. " Items: Is Fashion Modern? " looks at some of the garments that changed the world — but the show less about fashion, and more about design, history and why things last. Consider, for example, flip-flops, aka thongs. "The thong is very important," says MoMA Curator Paola Antonelli. "It's a humble masterpiece. That's why it exists in all cultures." A red hoodie, made by Champion in the 1980s, is also on display. At first, Antonelli says, the hoodie was functional: After training, a sweaty athlete might put one on to stay warm. But in recent years, it's become political. "When Trayvon Martin was wearing it in Florida a few years ago — he was walking at night and buying candy — George Zimmerman thought that he was suspicious because he was wearing the hoodie," she says. "So this disconnect andWe Are What We Wear: Exhibition Examines Clothing That Changed The Worldhttp://kwit.org/post/we-are-what-we-wear-exhibition-examines-clothing-changed-world
115867 as http://kwit.orgThu, 05 Oct 2017 09:02:00 +0000We Are What We Wear: Exhibition Examines Clothing That Changed The WorldSusan StambergOne hundred years ago, the U.S. entered the first global war — an ugly, dirty, agonizing conflict that cost millions of lives and changed the world. Now, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., is observing the centennial with art and artifacts in an exhibition called Artist Soldiers . The Americans didn't arrive until three years into the war and fought for less than a year. They joined French, Russian, British and other troops fighting Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. World War I was the first "modern" industrial war with large numbers of tanks, heavy artillery and planes. Tragically, it was also a war of trenches. "Hundreds of thousands of people died just to advance a few yards," explains Peter Jakab, chief curator at the Air and Space museum. Troops dug trenches along the Western Front from Belgium through France to Switzerland to dodge the constant shelling and machine gun fire, Jakab says. Then, they waited in those trenches, until orders came toEven In 'The War To End All Wars,' There Was Art Coming From The Trencheshttp://kwit.org/post/even-war-end-all-wars-there-was-art-coming-trenches
112059 as http://kwit.orgTue, 01 Aug 2017 09:18:00 +0000Even In 'The War To End All Wars,' There Was Art Coming From The TrenchesSusan StambergWhen I moved to Washington, D.C., in 1962, St. Elizabeths Hospital was notorious — a rundown federal facility for the treatment of people with mental illness that was overcrowded and understaffed. Opened with idealism and hope in 1855, the facility had ballooned from 250 patients to as many as 8,000. Its vast, rolling patch of farmland had fallen into disrepair, too, in the poorest neighborhood in the U.S. capital. St. Elizabeths is now the subject of an exhibition at the National Building Museum; Architecture of an Asylum explores the links between architecture and mental health. Dorothea Dix , the 19th-century reformer who fought for the facility, would have rolled over in her grave to see what St. Elizabeths had become by the 1960s. "She had observed the treatment of the mentally ill in jails and other kinds of alms houses [and] poor houses all over the country," explains exhibit curator Sarah Leavitt . Dix "was really appalled by the treatment that they were getting, and she made'Architecture Of An Asylum' Tracks History Of U.S. Treatment Of Mental Illnesshttp://kwit.org/post/architecture-asylum-tracks-history-us-treatment-mental-illness
110501 as http://kwit.orgThu, 06 Jul 2017 09:01:00 +0000'Architecture Of An Asylum' Tracks History Of U.S. Treatment Of Mental IllnessSusan StambergBehind the scenes at major art museums, conservators are hard at work, keeping masterpieces looking their best. Their methods are meticulous — and sometimes surprising. The painting conservation studio at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is filled with priceless works sitting on row after row of tall wooden easels, or lying on big, white-topped worktables. The studio is where I first met Senior Conservator Ann Hoenigswald years ago as she was fixing the sky on one of Claude Monet's impressions of the Rouen Cathedral in France. Bits of paint had flaked off over time, and Hoenigswald was carefully mixing her blue to match the old master's. Seeing the painting outside of its fancy frame, it felt like being inside the artist's studio. (I greatly wanted to try my hand at filling in some tiny bare spot in Monet's sky, which had once been covered by paint. Of course, the thoroughly professional Hoenigswald politely refused to hand over her brush.) Conservators must takeWith Chemistry And Care, Conservators Keep Masterpieces Looking Their Besthttp://kwit.org/post/chemistry-and-care-conservators-keep-masterpieces-looking-their-best
109964 as http://kwit.orgTue, 27 Jun 2017 08:33:00 +0000With Chemistry And Care, Conservators Keep Masterpieces Looking Their BestSusan Stamberghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIr8PAO0RSA There's no rain in her clouds, no gray in her shadows; Maud Lewis' small paintings are bright with sunshine, and filled with blue skies, crystal snow and calm waters. Now, a new movie tells the true story of a painter from Nova Scotia whose joyful works hardly hint at the difficult life she led. Lewis had rheumatoid arthritis, which made it difficult for her to work, even as a young woman. To support herself, she took a job cooking and cleaning for a peddler — a man she would later marry. In the film Maudie , the couple is played by Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke. (Critic Bob Mondello says the film is remarkable, click here to read his review. ) Lewis had no formal training, but she got her start painting Christmas cards with her mother, which they sold for 25 cents. As an adult, she used leftover house paint to brighten walls, bread boxes, cookie sheets — even the stove — with butterflies, tulips and swans. Canvas was expensive and hard toHome Is Where The Art Is: The Unlikely Story Of Folk Artist Maud Lewishttp://kwit.org/post/home-where-art-unlikely-story-folk-artist-maud-lewis
109505 as http://kwit.orgMon, 19 Jun 2017 20:32:00 +0000Home Is Where The Art Is: The Unlikely Story Of Folk Artist Maud LewisSusan StambergOne of the most glamorous creatures ever to grace the silver screen is back in pictures at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. A dazzling new exhibition features dozens of photographs of the seductive, German-born movie star Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich's legs were so famous that her studio insured them, and you can see why in the big photograph Milton Greene took of her in 1952. It shows the actress sitting, her face covered by a curtain of blonde hair. She's bending over her long, shapely, crossed and extremely exposed legs — legs so shapely that she shaped them in the photo, writing notes on the contact sheet about touch-ups. As a movie star, Dietrich was known for controlling her image. But a very early photograph from 1918 shows her as a slightly pudgy Berlin schoolgirl with a big black bow in her hair and big lace collar. Exhibition curator Kate Lemay says, "This is a very sweet, innocent [teenage] Marlene Dietrich who had recently changed her name." (She was bornGallery Gives Movie Star Marlene Dietrich The Big-Picture Treatmenthttp://kwit.org/post/gallery-gives-movie-star-marlene-dietrich-big-picture-treatment
109465 as http://kwit.orgMon, 19 Jun 2017 09:00:00 +0000Gallery Gives Movie Star Marlene Dietrich The Big-Picture TreatmentSusan StambergFrance's ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, is a fan of 19th-century French painter Frédéric Bazille. But I had a confession to make when I spoke with him about the National Gallery's " Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism " exhibition. I said that I usually walk right past Bazille's paintings and go straight to the impressionists — and I assume I'm not the only one who does that. Araud understands, but says he likes Bazille for the opposite reason: The impressionists are so well-known, he says, "I've reached a point where I don't look at them anymore." Those impressionists were also Bazille's pals. National Gallery curator Kimberly A. Jones says Bazille "was very much part of that sort of charmed circle. Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley — he was right at the heart of everything." Bazille and his friends were young 20-somethings eager to make new marks on the 1860s art scene. They shared studios, philosophy and gossip. "They were going to cafes,Meet Frédéric Bazille, The Impressionist Painter Who Could Have Beenhttp://kwit.org/post/meet-fr-d-ric-bazille-impressionist-painter-who-could-have-been
108279 as http://kwit.orgWed, 31 May 2017 09:03:00 +0000Meet Frédéric Bazille, The Impressionist Painter Who Could Have BeenSusan StambergIntellectual, philosophical, literary, rebellious, Simone de Beauvoir spoke a mile a minute, and wrote quickly, too — novels, essays, a play, four memoirs. She was an atheist, bisexual, pioneer feminist, and her longtime lover, Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote the book on Existentialism. When she died in 1986 she was world-famous — now the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., is saluting her again . De Beauvoir wanted to be a nun when she was little, but by her teenage years, she had decided to become a writer; it was what she wanted most in the world, she told a young friend. De Beauvoir wrote like a scribe, according to museum library director Sarah Osborne Bender. She points out two small piles of graph paper — the kind French students use to discipline their handwriting. They contain an early draft of de Beauvoir's best-known book, The Second Sex, a 1949 feminist treatise on what it means to be a woman. "When she finally decided that she was going to write this, theImagine What It Was Like To Sit Down At Simone De Beauvoir's Deskhttp://kwit.org/post/imagine-what-it-was-sit-down-simone-de-beauvoirs-desk
107361 as http://kwit.orgTue, 16 May 2017 09:02:00 +0000Imagine What It Was Like To Sit Down At Simone De Beauvoir's DeskSusan StambergOne hundred years ago Tuesday, in a working-poor neighborhood of Newport News, Va., a laundress and a shipyard worker had a baby girl. The father soon disappeared, and the mother and child moved north to New York. The mother died. The girl ran away and became one of the most important singers of the 20th century. Ella Fitzgerald could sing anything: a silly novelty song, like her breakthrough hit, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." A samba that scatted. A ballad, spooling out like satin. And, as Harlem historian John T. Reddick points out, she did it all with a certain lightness. "Despite whatever difficulties she had in her life, you could hear the joy," Reddick says. Fitzgerald's joy rang out through what Smithsonian Curator of American Music John Hasse says were terrible days. "It was a really tough time: segregation, the Great Depression, poverty, unemployment," he says. From early on, music was Fitzgerald's salvation. It was where she lived. She could lose herself in it and go somewhere else,Early Hardship Couldn't Muffle Ella Fitzgerald's Joyhttp://kwit.org/post/early-hardship-couldnt-muffle-ella-fitzgeralds-joy
105986 as http://kwit.orgTue, 25 Apr 2017 09:01:00 +0000Early Hardship Couldn't Muffle Ella Fitzgerald's JoySusan Stamberghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgELYTlW7vg By day, Ron Boustead works as a mastering engineer: He makes the final masters from which records are duplicated. He once worked at a Hollywood company that handled artists like Prince , The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra . Now, he's got a record of his own, Unlikely Valentine , which he's been promoting locally in Southern California. Like at the E Spot, a slightly-bigger-than-cozy supper club in Studio City. It serves good spaghetti and meatballs and — at least on the night Boustead and his band were onstage — hosts terrific music. The audience was full of jazz singers who loved his self-deprecating look at jazz in the song "I Won't Scat." "Scat is when a singer — he's sort of emulating a saxophone or a trumpet and using wordless syllables," Boustead later explains. But in the song, he refuses to do it, at least at first: "I won't scat / Tell you flat off the bat, I won't scat / Eat my hat, kiss a rat, but not that." The kicker comes atJazz Vocalist Ron Boustead's Humor Shines On 'Unlikely Valentine'http://kwit.org/post/jazz-vocalist-ron-bousteads-humor-shines-unlikely-valentine
105860 as http://kwit.orgSat, 22 Apr 2017 12:14:00 +0000Jazz Vocalist Ron Boustead's Humor Shines On 'Unlikely Valentine'Susan StambergWith his large-scale, exuberant paintings, artist Kerry James Marshall is on a mission: to make the presence of black people and black culture in the art world "indispensable" and "undeniable." Now 61, Marshall was a young artist when he decided to paint exclusively black figures. "One of the reasons I paint black people is because I am a black person ..." he says. "There are fewer representations of black figures in the historical record ..." Marshall was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1955, just before the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. He grew up in South Central, Los Angeles, and was living in the Watts neighborhood in 1965, when riots broke out in protest of police brutality. "The hope was always to make sure these works found their way into museums so they could exist alongside everything else that people go into museums to look at," Marshall says. And it's worked — a 35-year retrospective of his work has appeared at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago's Museum ofKerry James Marshall: A Black Presence In The Art World Is 'Not Negotiable'http://kwit.org/post/kerry-james-marshall-black-presence-art-world-not-negotiable
104263 as http://kwit.orgTue, 28 Mar 2017 09:29:00 +0000Kerry James Marshall: A Black Presence In The Art World Is 'Not Negotiable'Susan StambergIf you've ever spent an afternoon with "Under the Sea" or "A Whole New World" or "Be Our Guest" stuck in your head, you can thank composer Alan Menken. Menken scored The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and many other Disney classics. He says he prefers his songs "to be hummable." A new live action 3-D version of Beauty and the Beast opens Friday. For the 25th anniversary of the beloved animated version, the studio is re-telling the story with real people — Emma Watson and a cast of famous voices. They've kept the old songs, and added some new ones. Menken wrote three new songs for the live action version. When Menken's writing for Disney, he says he's trying to move the story forward through song. "Songs should have an infectious melody and rhythm," he says. They "should elicit an emotion, of happiness, or of celebration, or of sadness, or of sorrow, or of love, or of laughter — whatever." The songs also need to fit the character and the dramatic situation. The composerComposer Alan Menken On His Disney Tunes: 'I Prefer Them To Be Hummable'http://kwit.org/post/composer-alan-menken-his-disney-tunes-i-prefer-them-be-hum-able
103527 as http://kwit.orgThu, 16 Mar 2017 08:49:00 +0000Composer Alan Menken On His Disney Tunes: 'I Prefer Them To Be Hummable'Susan Stamberghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FXmCqlcrO4 As Oscar night approaches, a beloved multi-Oscar-winning classic is turning 75. In 1942, the World War II romance Casablanca brought glory to Warner Bros., and stardom to its leading actors. The Burbank, Calif., soundstage where the movie was made doesn't look like much, but it has taken on a legendary status of its own. Stage 7 is known as Lucky Seven, according to tour guide John Kourounis. That's because three Warner Bros. best picture winners — The Life of Emile Zola, My Fair Lady and Casablanca — and 10 best picture nominees were shot here. To get there, Kourounis drives visitors along streets lined with facades — banks, apartment buildings, the coffee shop where Emma Stone works in La La Land . On one corner stands a tan building that doesn't look like anything special. "As far as we know that is the last remaining exterior set from Casablanca ," Kourounis explains. It was on this corner that Rick Blaine (that's Humphrey Bogart) and IlsaAfter 75 Years, Here's Looking At You, 'Casablanca'http://kwit.org/post/after-75-years-heres-looking-you-casablanca
102280 as http://kwit.orgFri, 24 Feb 2017 10:02:00 +0000After 75 Years, Here's Looking At You, 'Casablanca'Susan Stamberghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlbWsn-PnQI There isn't an Oscar for choreography, but if there were, La La Land would almost certainly be taking it home this year. Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, this musical for the 21st century is full of tapping, waltzing, fox-trotting salutes to 20th century musical classics. The opening scene is a wow. A typical, Los Angeles traffic jam — blue skies and sunshine over the congested ramp where the 105 freeway meets the 110. Frustrated drivers are stuck sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. All of a sudden they get out of their cars and start to sing and dance! They're hopping, jumping and somersaulting over cars and trucks — and all throughout the joyful number, choreographer Mandy Moore was underneath one of the cars — "screaming out the counts. It was really fun," she says. (This, by the way, is not the singer/actress Mandy Moore — but rather, a choreographer of the same name.) The scene was filmed with 30 professional dancers and more thanBehind This Exuberant Dance Number? Planning, Precision And Practicehttp://kwit.org/post/behind-exhuberant-dance-number-planning-precision-and-practice
102054 as http://kwit.orgTue, 21 Feb 2017 10:06:00 +0000Behind This Exuberant Dance Number? Planning, Precision And PracticeSusan StambergPainter David Hockney once said, "It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does , rather than what he says about his work." On Thursday in London, a major retrospective at Tate Britain will give visitors the chance to see 60 years of the English artist's "doings." Oils, acrylics, sketches, photographs, smartphone drawings — Hockney has worked in every medium. He's one of the best-known contemporary artists and his works sell for millions. To get to Hockney's studio you go up, up, up a winding canyon road in the Hollywood Hills. It's a neighborhood studded with stars' homes — George Clooney, Kevin Costner and Marlon Brando back in the day. Hockney's studio has five easels, some comfy armchairs and white walls brightened with his works. Never mind the ashtrays — the floor is carpeted with Davidoff cigarettes, chain smoked three-quarters down, then stubbed into dark brown smears. (To make sure it's really out, "I always stub it out with my foot," he says.) There are someAt 79, David Hockney Isn't Keen On Parties, But Still Paints Every Dayhttp://kwit.org/post/79-david-hockney-isnt-keen-parties-still-paints-every-day
101244 as http://kwit.orgWed, 08 Feb 2017 09:50:00 +0000At 79, David Hockney Isn't Keen On Parties, But Still Paints Every DaySusan StambergBreaking news is everywhere, 24 hours a day. And now, it's made its way into an art gallery as well — in an exhibit called "Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media." In Los Angeles, a Getty Museum show examines artists' reactions to mass media in decades past. The exhibit includes more than 200 photos and videos, from 17 different artists. They're not photojournalists — these artists take the work of photojournalists, and turn it into something else. They appropriate images of terrorism, war, natural disasters. For two of the artists, the Vietnam War is a major theme; They lifted deeply disturbing images from magazines, newspapers, TV screens, and collaged or manipulated them to reflect their horror at the war. (Caution: As you scroll down further, you'll come to some of those disturbing images.) Martha Rosler clipped a Life magazine color photograph of a handsome 1960s living room, and on top of it, pasted a shot of a devastated, Vietnamese man carrying his blood-spattered child'Breaking News' Artists Use Mass Media As Their Mediumhttp://kwit.org/post/breaking-news-artists-use-mass-media-their-medium
100721 as http://kwit.orgTue, 31 Jan 2017 10:09:00 +0000'Breaking News' Artists Use Mass Media As Their MediumSusan StambergCopyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: It has been said that the best things in life are free, and that thought is the inspiration behind our Commercials for Nicer Living Project version 2-0-1-7. We asked you to tell us some of the things that make life just a little bit better, things that money cannot buy, and then we asked you to write ads for those things in 120 words just like you'd hear on the radio. More than 2,000 of you took up our challenge, and from your suggestions we picked just five to produce like commercials. Susan Stamberg is here to present two of them. Hiya, Susan. SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: Hi. SIEGEL: This is an updated version of a project that you came up with. I want you to remind us of the original Commercials for Nicer Living Projects. STAMBERG: OK. In 1972, which was before you were born, Robert, for our non-commercial radio program we asked listeners to write ads not for toothpaste, deodorant, toilet bowl cleansers, but for things that'Commercials for Nicer Living Project' Winners Announcedhttp://kwit.org/post/commercials-nicer-living-project-winners-announced
100558 as http://kwit.orgFri, 27 Jan 2017 21:36:00 +0000'Commercials for Nicer Living Project' Winners Announced